Fall From Grace

Believe it or not, I really wanted to return from Southern California and immediately bask in some of the more recent positive D*Back developments. Family and friends managed to enjoy Webb's Sunday shutout of the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine first hand, despite our daunting lack of exposure to Alyssa Milano.  Our Houston Reds are pulling away from the NL West and, amazin'ly, have more wins than the New York Mets - in mid August! But all that has to wait, at least a smidge, after enduring Mark Grace's shameless diatribe aimed at my fair burg during last night's FSNAZ Pirates telecast.

While their employers have effectively suppressed attendance via pricing policy and a litany of fan alienating moves over three years, Grace and Sutton have consistently encouraged people to come to the ballpark. That's their job and there's obviously nothing wrong with that. 

Where Sutton, Grace and DBacks' brass err is in the shrill, disingenuous nature of their salesmanship. First came the ponderous nightly lectures about how good the team was and how people watching from home were "missing out" on the action. As if greater Phoenix had contracted communal glaucoma and was blind to what's happening out on the field. As if a sports crazy community that purchased 25 million baseball tickets over the past decade was now suddenly incapable of discerning how to best spend it's entertainment dollars.

Then came Derrick Hall's dumbed down campaign pitching the easily refuted fib that Chase Field has the lowest prices in all of baseball. There's a line, over which standard marketing, putting your best foot forward, crosses over into credibility damaging misinformation - and Derrick Hall has repeatedly proven to be as timid about crossing that Rubicon as is Don Rumsfeld. 

But even Hall's by now predictable hijinks pale next to Grace's scripted hissy last night. He used the telestrator to circle a large patch of empty seats in the lower bowl near third base and, for two solid minutes, scolded the entire televison audience that this was "unacceptable". He further enumerated that widespread complaints about the removal of team colors and the popular left fielder were "garbage". 

You have to laugh. Here's a guy who's cashed $50 million in windfall checks from MLB ( and goodness knows how much more in peripheral endorsements ), chastising an entire city for not forking over sufficient dough to appropriately support their team - the one whose stadium most of them paid for and many of whom root for each night on television.

And this isnt just any city. The hot and currently humid object of Mr Grace's calculated "wrath" sports the lowest per capita income amongst MLB's twenty seven markets. Dead last. 

Beyond the indignity (or is it hilarity?) of taking instruction on such matters from a multimillionaire shill like Grace is his stunningly angry dismissal of a lucrative swath of valley fans - tens of thousands who used to come to the park regularly who now seldom do. Grace labeled these customers' concerns "garbage". Regarding the dual departure of Luis Gonzalez and the exisiting uniforms, Diamondhacks never objected to either development on its face. Instead, we excoriated specific aspects of these changes: the callous obliteration of every vestige of the original franchise color scheme, and the refusal to negotiate with Gonzalez on even a below market, courtesy level. This, after Kendrick demurely thrust unsolicited "whispers" targeting the popular left fielder upon a surprised E.J. Montini. 

In the end, it doesnt matter a whole lot what I, or Mark Grace, thinks about this - or a hundred other Diamondback issues. Every Phoenician can make up their own minds about this team and this particular ownership group.

And every day they do. 

Just like they did when 40,000 a night watched a 65 win expansion team, and later 30,000 a night to support a 111 loss monstrosity. This year, the very same community (only larger) barely draws 25K to support a first place squad full of young interesting faces - a product, it needs to be said (because current ownership hardly has the "grace" to acknowledge it publicly), of both regimes.